My PSP 2000

My wife bought me a PSP for my birthday last February. It was an old modeled PSP 2001. I've been playing on it with some UMD's for some time with a few ISO games here and there. In a country that's choc-full of piracy, it's hard to play and stay legit with my choice of games. Pay a handful of money to fill up your Memory Stick with games versus pay an average of P2000 for each legitimate game.

Honestly, I'm totally against piracy though I'm ok with trial software. So I'd rather that I try a game first before I'd buy it before I'd be willing to part away hard-earned P2000 for a new game that I wouldn't like in the long run. I run into a lot of people nowadays talking about their collection of iso's and I seem to pull away from their discussion mainly because they talk about stolen software with no intention of actually purchasing the game they have as an ISO. It's like stealing a burger and munching it down hungrily before anyone else catches you then say you don't have to pay for it... I'd prefer that I eat my burger, say I love the taste of its beef patty then I declare that I want to pay for what it's worth, otherwise I discard it because I just might throw it up in disgust.

The new PSP firmwares have reached the 6.0 mark and Dark Alex - an icon among the PSP custom firmware circle, drops out. It's funny that I hear from the people around me that it gets harder to get the newer games nowadays. The new PSP-3000's are still a tough nut to crack for custom firmware groups and thus a low-seller among the piracy crowd here. PSP-1000's and PSP-2000's are skyrocketing with prices reaching nearly 1/3 more than the PSP-3000 for sheer customizability and demand.

I walked around Greenhills and I see that the PSP-3000's would sell at around P11,000. PSP-2000's would sell at P13,000 or even at a shocking P15,000! One time a guy just tapped me on the shoulder telling me to sell my PSP to him for P14,000. My PSP-2000, heavily-used for over 9 months, sells like gold!

I'm almost about to give up on my PSP-2000 if given the chance. My wife tells me don't - I can swap mine with her PSP-3000. But if I do, I'd replace it with a PSP-3000 with the latest official firmware and keep myself happy with the latest updates with Sony. Homebrew code? There are other handheld devices that can handle that. I'd rather keep my PSP as my entertainment media for my music, games and pictures - period.

Morbid looking typographical errors

I've been hearing a lot of poor references to titles from newscasters/reporters and in print about Former President Aquino's burial last August 5, 2009.

I keep on hearing "President Corazon Aquino" "President Aquino" all over the TV news. I believe the proper title for her was "FORMER PRESIDENT Aquino". It seems that we forgot to mention that she was President 3 terms ago. Are we losing our respect for the Presidency that we seem to toss around the word "PRESIDENT" like it was just a piece of crumpled paper?

And now to top it all off, President Arroyo's name happen to be labeled unto a coffin where Former President Corazon Aquino's body lay.

This photo was passed around a lot. Scanned image came from Manila Bulletin's backpage. I can't take credit for catching the error. I'd just want to point out how poorly we address titular names, that we mix up two presidents - an immortally engraved in our hearts, and the one currently seated at Malacanang.

Nokia E63 - A sudden change of pace

How do I say this; A few months ago, I wanted so much as to add a lot of gadgets into my laptop that it's starting to bother me. These days I have to attach a wireless mouse, a laptop cooler, 2 flash drives, a digital recorder, a portable hard disk, and a gamepad to it. Suddenly my idea of a mobile life wasn't so mobile at all with all these devices I had to bring along with it. The total carrying weight of all these items has reached 10 kgs which is not my idea of being mobile and having fun.

Enter my new Nokia E63. It's a variant of the Nokia E71 that's been out in Greenhills, San Juan since December of 2008. According to some the advertising flyers regarding the E-series, it's "Leave the Laptop in the office". I really did.

It had a lot of bells and whistles that I actually don't need like the Nokia OVI service where you actually can store your files online and have your E63/71 pick it up from the internet (a paid service) and the Nokia MAPS (another paid service) to get your bearings from anywhere. What I'm truly interested was its ability to play Mp3, play simple AVI files, keep my calendar organized, an simple camera for quick photo reference regarding my work, a wifi-based browser, and an audio recorder. I downloaded and installed Putty (an SSH-client for the Symbian 60 phone).

The functions of this phone pretty much answered MOST of my needs while I'm mobile. I may not be able to bring ALL my stuff, but I'm pretty sure I can enjoy them sitting in the office or just at home.

New Laptop... Now What?!

To VISTA or -NOT- to VISTA...

... My Dad just bought me an HP DV6000 with Windows Vista Home Premium installed... now I don't know what I should do with it. I don't have Microsoft Office, nor any other softwares that could go with it since most of these softwares are even out of my own budget. Thankfully, it frees up my old laptop with the option to install a pure-Linux distribution and a spare laptop I purchased for my wife. I could probably install it with Codecs so that I could watch nice movies on it... but then that's it. Most of the top laptops today are capable of crunching a phenomenal amount of numbers but all I need is a laptop that can playback my videos, run my scripts and surf the net.

I guess I can actually separate some of the tasks since I now have 3 laptops to do the jobs that I want. One for the videos, one for the scripts and programming and the last one to surf the net.

Leaving the nest

I'm getting married on February 8, 2008.

Woah man, big decision for me. I never thought I wanted to leave the place where I felt comfortable. I lived in my parent's home for 29 years and everything that I needed was provided. Money-wise, I'm pretty capable of taking care of myself. I always thought about leaving the nest.

Economically it is hard to leave the old home. I had to think about electricity, water, daily food, clothing, bills for telephone, internet, cable, studies... the list begins to grow longer and I cower down on my ability to support myself under the sheer weight of necessities to support my lifestyle.

I'm a geek. I'm an internet-savvy geek. In my thirst for the internet, it has become part of my basic necessities.

Equipment wise, the things that I'm gonna need to maintain my thirst for cyberspace, I have come up with a list of equipment that I'll ever need...

1. Laptop with lots of ram and long lasting battery
2. Color/B&W Printer
3. Scanner
4. DVD Burner
5. WACOM pen tablet
6. An LCD monitor to extend my desktop
   

Besides these, I'm gonna need a huge shelf for my books, a study table.

Why a laptop? I prefer a laptop so that I don't have to cramp my ass in one corner all day and forget that I have other things to do. Like do the laundry, wash the dishes.

I'm gonna leave a place where everything else like cooking, cleaning are done with the help of maids. But now I'm on my own, I will have to do these things... and checking down on my list, I find out that I lack in some of the things that I should know - like cooking, laundry... I feel inadequate and yet I need to learn more to earn more...

I still have dreams to fulfill... one of them is to finish my MCSE. Windows 2008 is coming and MCSE 2008 will eventually obsolete my MCSE 2003 goal. I still also want to be able to draw. I don't want my dreams to go away. I just want them to be out there where I can almost reach them. Treading my feet forward one step at a time closer to my dreams. When I start to have kids, I want them to be proud of what kind of Dad they have and know that I have achieved my goals. Having so much pride and joy to have my kids, I would set an example to them and hope that they can fulfill their own dreams - when they start leaving my nest.

Byousoku 5cm

This anime was probably one of the deepest and heart-warming plots that I've ever come across. A story that gave me pangs of regret on things that I've come to love yet have passed behind me to be only a passing memory. It's a very simple story of long distance relationship, unrequited love and love-long-lost yet the lessons learned resonates with the right tone that hurts yet endears in me.

One of its lines seem to bring me so close and relate well with the characters in the story:

"...that would really be a journey so dark and lonely as to be beyond all imagination. To exist so earnestly in pure darkness without meeting even a single hydrogen atom by chance To absolutely and wholeheartedly believe that somewhere in the abyss, you are getting closer to the secrets of the universe. In that manner, where are we headed towards? "
- Tohno after reading an article on the space probe Elish before its launch into deep space

Has my life been like everyone else that we become so obsessed with our pursuit of fulfillment, that we were so driven, as to look towards an almost unreachable goal, without considering that the answers may lie with the help of the others around you?

The Overused Mishap Event in Philippine Drama

"Male Lead character meets with cute side-character. Female Lead character sees them, leaves scene in tears and blindingly crosses street and gets hit by car."

This is probably an overused method of providing sympathy from the audience. But jeez, it is already an insult to an average Filipino's intelligence on how a drama story goes. Does Philippine storytelling ever got close to being original? GMA-7 and ABS-CBN may have been the leading media networks around - oh I'm sorry - they are the only ones around who have TV-Drama series.

Also, we never thought about it the other way around. How often do we see people get hit by a car in the Philippines? How often do we see vehicular accidents? We can imagine how much time is lost on commuting a small 20km distance from your home to work. Here are some of the things that we usually observe in the road traffic that brings down our road efficiency.

1. Jeepneys that STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD when there's space on the curb for them to pick up passengers.
2. Buses swerve their weight around the road, occupying a vast majority of the lanes.
3. Road works with poorly erected danger signposts.
4. Lanes were never followed. A three-lane road becomes a four-lane road. I guess Filipinos were never born lane drivers.
   
5. Counter-flow. Cars occupying the opposite lane making a 2 lane road into a 3 lane - while the opposite lane shrinks to just 1 lane.
6. Tricycles driving through highway areas. If they can only speed up and blend with the traffic, I'd probably forgive them - BUT NO!! - I had to slow down and match their speed of 20kph?!?!
   
7. 30-year old Jeepneys with smoke-belching mufflers. With speeds of no more than 30 kph.
8. Pedestrians waiting for public transport - standing in the middle of the road (not on the sidewalk). If by chance that I was not able to see them as I drive by, I might hit them. If I get sued in court, I still lose my defense case.
9. Road encroachment. Stores that open their shop into the street. Complete with tables/chairs and a FENCE!!